We are a small company, but we have employees scattered around the US. Last Friday, Mike (our CEO) and I headed down to Fort Walton Beach for our quarterly All Hands Briefing. We only have three employees there, but when we showed up, it was so much fun to see how excited they were to have us visiting. Actually, believe it or not, this was the first time either of us had ever met the employees since we took over their contract one year ago today.
Can you imagine going a year without meeting some of the key people in your organization? Me, either.Â
We were there for a whirlwind tour and the short All Hands Briefing with our entire company, and it was fun to tell everyone about the great team we have down in Florida. The customer on site actually said, “They are a small team, but they’re a good team.” Tough to get better feedback than that, and it was shared face to face with the customer and the CEO, to boot!
The moral of the story? Get out of your cave and meet your people. Find out what they do. Look for ways to make life easier on them. We took the time to find out their issues and frustrations, and we’re working to solve those already (less than 2 working days since the trip). They know that we care, and they are going to remain strong supporters of us in the future.
My friend Dave has a great post on how he sometimes travels with the sales team to find out how to help them do their jobs better. Brilliant. Read through it and see if you see a parallel that you can draw to your own business/industry.
The bottom line
I can send emails, call people on the phone, and talk all I want. But nothing replaces face to face interaction with your people. I think that’s one big reason HRevolution is such a success–people crave interaction and we just give them a forum to meet and converse with one another.
Good post Ben. This strategy becomes more challenging when you’re trying to connect with 3,000 or 30,000 employees. But the key point is that leadership is role-modeling the right behavior, and that absolutely has an effect!
Bravo! Human interaction is the soul of our businesses. The success of our enterprises lie at the intersection of our common humanity — where energy, hearts, and intelligence are stored. That connection can be made in very different ways and you address many of them in your posts. I thank you Ben for connecting us and helping us to make our organizations stronger.
Hey Ben thanks for the mention about the post. I could not agree more it is important to see people face to face and connect that way. It is sooo important!
It is great that you were able to find a capable team. There are a lot of capable people out there whose aim are similar with their employer. I am working for an employer I haven’t met yet. I feel lucky to have a good boss. My aim is to provide the best service for the success of his company.